New Locality of the endangered Sierra Madre Sparrow (Xenospiza Baileyi) from the State of Durango, Mexico, and recommendations for its conservation

Abstract

The Sierra Madre Sparrow (Xenospiza baileyi) is an endemic species of Mexico that is threatened with extinction. Its distribution is reported in two areas: One in the Transvolcanic Belt of central Mexico (La Cima) near Mexico City and the other in the Sierra Madre Occidental in northwestern Mexico (Ejido Ojo de Agua El Cazador) near the city of Durango, in the state of Durango. The habitat is the same in these two areas, and consists of sub-alpine grassland that is located in shallow valleys or shallows. In our case, "El Bajío la Cantera" of approximately 55 hectares, is mostly used in rainfed agriculture, protected from livestock grazing with wire fences, which in turn represents protection for remnants of grassland where they are the birds. "El Bajío la Cantera" belongs to Ejido 12 de Mayo, Municipality of San Dimas, Durango, where 28 males were detected singing along a 500 meter transect. This finding represents the population of the healthiest Sierra Madre Sparrow currently known, so it would be necessary to document their population trend over time. This information can help to evaluate and propose the creation of a special protection area for the species that involves joint government actions and ejidatarios tending to conserve the habitat during the reproductive season in order to increase and / or maintain the size of the population.

Adaptive genetic diversity and evidence of population genetic structure in the endangered Sierra Madre Sparrow (Xenospiza baileyi)

“…Finally, genetic drift should not be completely discarded as a potential evolutionary force involved in Sierra Madre Sparrow genetic diversity. For the mitochondrial COI gene, Durango maintained lower genetic diversity than Mexico City as expected from comparative population size, and this lowered diversity may reflect the negative impacts caused by land-use change and habitat fragmentation through time [38,46]. In support of this, we also detected a reduction of COI variation in Durango (Fig 4), over a span of just 20 years.…”

“…[39,[42][43][44]. Moreover, the Sierra Madre Sparrow has suffered a dramatic habitat reduction owing to anthropogenic land-use modifications, including urbanization, agriculture, and livestock grazing [37,38,41,45,46]. This habitat reduction has been more pronounced in the northern population [38], although bunchgrass areas from the southern Valley of Mexico populations have also been affected.…”

El Gorrión Serrano (Xenospiza baileyi): síntesis sobre la historia natural, estudios científicos y acciones para la conservación de un ave micro endémica de México en peligro de extinción

“…gorrión tímido que permanece gran parte del tiempo al interior del pastizal) y a la falta de esfuerzos para precisar su distribución local y regional, la distribución geográfica de la especie ha sido poco conocida. Así, la especie se consideró extinta en la Sierra Madre Occidental hasta su redescubrimiento en Durango (Oliveras de Ita & Rojas-Soto, 2006); sin embargo, estudios posteriores han confirmado su presencia en al menos otras 12 localidades (Guevara-Herrera, 2012;Martínez-Guerrero et al, 2018;Sánchez-Escalera, 2019) (Fig. 2).…”

“…2). Actualmente, se sabe que el área de distribución más amplia para esta especie se ubica en el centro del país, específicamente al sur de la Ciudad de México y en localidades vecinas del Estado de México y Morelos (Gómez de Silva & Oliveras de Ita, 2016;Meléndez-Herrada et al, 2016;Ortega-Álvarez et al, 2020a) En fechas recientes, se ha reportado a X. baileyi en localidades previamente desconocidas, tanto al norte (Martínez-Guerrero et al, 2018;Sánchez-Escalera, 2019) como al centro del país (Ortega-Álvarez et al, 2020a) (Fig. 2).…”

“…El Gorrión Serrano (Xenospiza baileyi), catalogado en peligro de extinción, es una de las aves más vulnerables de México (valor de vulnerabilidad = 20; Partners in Flight, 2020) (SEMARNAT, 2010;BirdLife International, 2017). Se trata de una especie micro endémica especialista de pastizales de alta montaña, actualmente confinada a localidades específicas de la Sierra Madre Occidental y del Eje Neovolcánico (Gómez de Silva & Oliveras de Ita, 2016;Meléndez-Herrada et al, 2016;Martínez-Guerrero et al, 2018;Ortega-Álvarez et al, 2020a). Tiene un plumaje poco llamativo y es sumamente tímida, por lo que suele pasar desapercibida (Dickerman et al, 1967;Cabrera-García, 2006).…”